Warner Bros Motion Picture chairs Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy touted movies in theaters with De Luca saying he’d have a problem working for a movie studio that didn’t put its fare on the big screen — noting that he’s thought about that a lot, and if it ever happened he’d probably focus on series.
But both will be at WB for the foreseeable future. At the Bloomberg Screentime conference in LA today, the duo acknowledged their contract renewal announced Wednesday. They also weaved away from any criticism of their past rocky relationship with WBD CEO David Zaslav, who had been openly talking to other execs about running the film division back when the studio was having a rough patch.
With the relentless success over the past months starting with Minecraft (a sequel is coming), Ryan Coogler’s (“all heart”) Sinners, a Superman revival and praise for One Battle After Another the duo are now sitting in the C-Suite drivers’ seat and are a major asset for WB unto themselves
“We’re doing our part,” said De Luca on the growth in actual big screen output, with WBD now at pre-pandemic box office levels.
“There is no one size fits all. Abdy added, meaning budgets, but also emphasizing their overall approach to their diverse slate, a key ingredient being “discipline.”
Spreading the wealth with praise for other members of their team and a newly “super charged” marketing team, De Luca and Abdy’s confidence onstage in the heart of Hollywood Wednesday was actually refreshingly low key – an industry rarity. To that, the crowd was locked in on every node and wink from the seasoned producers of what could happen next in the fast changing industry.
“It all starts with the script, it all starts with the story,” Abdy said in what is usually a town cliche. De Luca added that a significant portion of their strategy was marketing and “discipline” on production and costs. “When there is a good run at a studio, morale is high,” he noted.
“Our North Star is keeping our head down and doing the work,” said Abdy.
Centering on One Battle After Another‘s long-term box office success, De Luca spotlighted the acclaimed Leonardo DiCaprio authoritarian ” masterpiece” from Paul Thomas Anderson as being a “marathon not a sprint.”
The two took the stage just after David Ellison, the new CEO of Paramount Skydance, currently eyeing an acquisition of Warner Bros. They avoided any talk of a potential pending merger. In what felt like a nod to tech-heavy Ellison, Abdy did call the vibe at WB that of a “start up.”